Thursday, July 30, 2015

Irrational Man Review (2015)

In “Irrational Man” Woody Allen turns Fyodor Dostoevsky’s
dense philosophical novel “Crime and Punishment” into a light modern-day mystery/romance. The film addresses a number of interesting philosophical
ideas-- mainly existential choice (the freedom to choose) as well as randomness
and chance and how those ideas interact with each other in real life. Unfortunately,
Allen’s script doesn’t explore these concepts in any great depth—the movie
often feels like a bland philosophy lecture. On top of that I just couldn’t buy
the central relationship between its two protagonists.

Joaquin Phoenix plays Abe, a philosophy professor who takes
up a summer teaching job at a small town college. He’s painfully misanthropic,
disillusioned and seemingly on the verge of suicide. Why? Because the world is
unfair and he feels he can’t make any meaningful impact. Things change when he
befriends one of his students, Jill (Emma Stone) and when they’re out one day,
he happens to randomly eavesdrop on a conversation concerning a judge that’s
abusing his powers Hearing this, Abe has
an a-ha moment and decides to commit a rather drastic act, a decision that
gives him a new lease on life.

This almost one hundred and eighty degree turnaround in
Abe’s attitude is the first problem “Irrational Man” runs into. Abe decides to commit this act primarily for selfish reasons; he’s not going to sit back and accept
the unfairness of this situation, he’s going to take action. In his mind he’s
exercising his freedom to choose and feels doing this act will make the world a better place. While this philosophical reasoning is
interesting Abe’s change comes too abruptly. He becomes a different man, happy
and relaxed. He’s so sure in his decision that there’s no convincing him
otherwise, a change in demeanor I just simply couldn’t believe.

Additionally, after his a-ha moment Abe becomes a rather
stale, one-sided character. Like Abe, part of Ralskolnikov (the protagonist of
“Crime and Punishment”) does believe his existential act is just and beneficial
but there’s another part of him that’s racked with guilt and paranoia. He even
becomes physically sick. That other side of Ralskolnikov (the side that makes
him multilayered) is missing from Abe. You’d think that as a professional
thinker, Abe would consider the repercussions of his actions and have that
moral debate in his mind but he doesn’t. He practically shuts his brain off.
There’s not much more character development after his turning point and Abe
ceases to be a compelling character.

Another problem with “Irrational Man” is it deals with its
philosophical ideas, themes and almost everything else in such a heavy-handed,
surface level way. For starters, the fact that Abe is indeed a philosophy
professor dealing with this big existential crisis feels too on the nose, too
obvious. On top of that, between the hindsight voiceover testimonials from Abe
and Jill, scenes depicting Abe giving lectures on concepts acted out in the
movie and the various philosophical discussions between characters throughout,
the film doesn’t leave much for the viewers to dissect afterwards. Everything
is left out in the open. To hammer home the “Crime and Punishment” angle further we get
a scene where Jill finds Abe’s personal copy of the novel with the judge’s name written in
it.

In a scene early on during a lecture, Abe discusses the
difference between philosophy in class and applying philosophical ideas to real
world situations. In classrooms, you’re dealing with highly theoretical situations
that may not fully apply to real life. It’s ironic then, that the picture
itself takes such a textbook, didactic approach to its “real life” situations.
The only thing missing would be to have Allen himself, standing off to the side
of each scene, with a Philosophy 101 textbook open, breaking the fourth wall
and instructing us on how a particular philosophical concept applies to the
scene at hand.

Finally, the most frustrating aspect of “Irrational Man” is
the relationship between Abe and Jill. From the get go Jill is infatuated with
Abe; he even rejects her advances at first. She says she’s “in love” with him
multiple times. Why is she so in love with him? At the beginning, Abe is a
miserable, alcoholic, uncaring schlub and yet she can’t get him out of her mind.
We’re told by others that he can be “charismatic--” not once is he charismatic.
Jill says he has lots of problems but he’s “brilliant.” We don’t see this
brilliance because he goes from being miserable to upbeat and one note. And
anyway, not all brilliant people are necessarily sexy. In other words, I didn't
buy their romantic relationship for a second and I found it particularly
maddening that Jill is the one who lusts so hard after Abe. It sort of feels
like an old cynical writer’s fantasy: cute, smart, funny, young Emma Stone
lusting after the extreme misanthrope!

"Irrational Man" flat lines and fails to make good use of its meaty
concepts. The ending is too quick, wrapping things up too neatly and again, not
giving the audience anything to chew on. All in all, the picture is mostly a
skin deep, heavy-handed philosophy lecture.